Stragglers Moon
by Chelz1234
Summary: When House and Cuddy find themselves stranded on a desert island they have no one to rely on but each other. Will they cope? And will they ever be rescued? K for now but may change. Huddy.
1. Back Down To Earth

**Title: **Stragglers Moon

**Rating: **K+

**Part: **1/?

**Pairing: **Huddy

**Words: **945

**Genre: **Drama / Romance / Angst / Humour… bit of everything really!

**Other: **This is the first time I've written anything House that isn't a one parter so please let me know what you think. Also massive thank you to everyone that has replied to my previous two stories. Love you guys! XD

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**Chapter One - Back Down To Earth**

House opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself staring at the sky. He blinked a couple of times to confirm the fact that he wasn't imagining it. No, when he opened his eyes again he was still laying in what appeared to be a patch of grass looking up at a dark blue sunless sky. It was apparently early evening.

The last thing he remembered was being on a plane and dozing off after a glass of wine and a few vicodin. After using his hands to push himself up House took another look at where he was. He may have been sitting on grass but to the left of him there was nothing but sand, and eventually sea. He was on a beach? House could feel that there was something sticky on the right hand side of his forehead and put his hand up to see what it was. It stung as his hands met it and he swiftly brought his arm back down. Blood? He licked the deep red substance that was now on his fingertips. It definitely tasted like blood.

Pulling himself to his feet House tried to ignore the pain in his right leg. Something had obviously happened on the plane, but what he had no idea. He needed to find Cuddy. Not sure what direction to go in House glanced around for any clue that would indicate where the rest of the people on the plane were. Noticing there were what looked vaguely like faded footprints to his left House began following them. Roughly half a mile later he was on the verge of giving up and sitting down when he saw what looked like a small child curled up on the edge of the beach. Groaning, House continued towards them slightly irritated by his bad luck. Of all the people to see first it just had to be a child who was no doubt whining for it's mother. Well he wasn't going to sit there comforting it, he would just find out where everyone else was and then go and find them. Only as House got closer he realised that it wasn't a child. Once he was no more than a few feet away he called out, half in shock at discovering who was actually curled up on the beach. "Cuddy."

Cuddy looked up at him and House immediately noticed her tearstained face. "House where have you been? I thought you were…" Cuddy's second sentence broke off and she jumped up flinging her arms around him, a look of relief spread across her face.

"You thought I was what?" Was all House managed, wanting her to stop hugging him but not daring to say anything incase she began crying again. Why was she looking at him like that?

Cuddy stared at House for a moment. Had he not realised yet? She let her arms drop and took at step back from him. "House I thought you were dead. I thought you had died when the plane crashed like everyone else."

"Everyone else?"

"Yes everyone else" Cuddy repeated. She had seen the bodies spread across the sand back where the plane had crashed, and it was not an image that she was likely to forget any time soon.

"But that isn't possible. I saw footsteps, I followed them, I…" House took a look over his shoulder at the "footsteps" he had followed. There was nothing there. No, that couldn't be right. He walked back to where he had come from; nothing. He had imagined it, the fact he had run into Cuddy was nothing more than luck. He turned back and walked towards her again. "It's just us?" By now House already knew what the answer would be, he just wasn't ready to accept it yet.

Cuddy nodded "just us."

"You sure?"

"Very, I counted all the bodies to make sure that there was no one wandering around injured; only you were missing." Tears were forming in her eyes again at the thought of all the lives that had been lost; and all in an instant. Then it only took a moment for someone to die, having worked her entire life in a hospital Cuddy should have been used to this by now.

"But how did I end up so far away from the rest of you?" Cuddy's thoughts were interrupted by House, who was trying not to think about all the dead bodies that were piled up somewhere next to the wreckage of the plane. He tried to concentrate instead on how he had come to be separated from the rest of the group.

"You must have been flung out further than we were. It might have had something to do with the fact that you were asleep. As we were going down everyone else was running around and struggling with the emergency exits."

House nodded. He wasn't really sure what else to say at this point, there wasn't really anything else to say. He allowed his body to drop to the floor to take the weight of his right leg, and Cuddy sat down beside him and rested her head gently on his shoulder. It was over an hour before either of them spoke again.


	2. Getting What We Need

**Title: **Stragglers Moon

**Rating: **K+

**Part: **2/?

**Pairing: **Huddy

**Words: **1593

**Genre: **Drama / Romance / Angst / Humour… bit of everything really!

**Other: **Wow I was not expecting that many replies! Thank you so much guys they really mean a lot. I really appreciate you all taking the time to read and reply to this. ^_^

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**Chapter Two - Getting What We Need**

It had been over an hour since either of them had spoken and House's right leg was beginning to cramp. While they had been sitting in silence House had been considering what their next move should be, and he had finally reached a conclusion. "We need to go back to the plane."

Cuddy looked up in horror. There was no way that she wanted to go back to where everyone had died - and what would be the point of it anyway? "House there's not a chance in…"

House interrupted her. "Lisa we need to go back so we can rescue whatever supplies there are left. I know you don't want to go back and I would go alone but I won't be able to carry that much on my own" House pointed at the right leg that was stretched out in front of him. "We need to have as much as possible so that we survive until we get rescued." House looked pleadingly at her hoping that she would realise that this was just what they had to do.

Cuddy was a little surprised at House's use of her first name. But then using surnames was mainly a formality used at work; and they weren't at work any more. "Fine" Cuddy reluctantly agreed knowing that what they were going to do was a necessity so she was going to have to just get on with it despite her disgust at the idea of hunting through dead bodies. Cuddy waited for House to start walking so she could follow him.

House stared at her for a moment. Why was she not moving anywhere? Please don't say she had changed her mind about going already. He had been patient up 'til now but it was beginning to wear out. "Cuddy come on you have to do this."

Cuddy was confused for a moment trying to figure out what House meant. She also noted the fact he had returned to addressing her by her surname. Suddenly it occurred to her why they weren't moving; he didn't know where the plane was, he needed her to lead. "Oh sorry I forgot you don't know where you're going."House rolled his eyes and was tempted to say something sarcastic, but knowing how much what they were about to do was going to upset her he decided that, just in this instance, he was going to keep his mouth shut. She began walking and he followed her, struggling to keep his balance on the sand.

A few minutes later Cuddy looked around trying to work out where House had disappeared to; he had been right behind her a moment ago. She turned round to find him a few metres back along the beach stumbling all over the place and generally looking like he was in a lot of pain. She doubled back and went to get him. He had obviously been separated from his cane and the sand wasn't exactly the easiest thing to walk on for anyone, let along someone that only had one good leg. Though she was still bruised and battered from the crash Cuddy knew that she was physically stronger than he was. "Let me help you." Cuddy wrapped her arm around his waist letting him lean onto her shoulder, and together they made their way back to where the plane had crashed.

House's jaw dropped as he saw quite how many dead bodies there were spread across the sand. Some of them were in pieces with limbs spread across the beach. He looked at Cuddy with a look of admiration on his face as he understood fully what she had done earlier that day. "And you checked through all of these bodies?" He was whispering without really being sure why, it wasn't like there was anyone else there to hear him.

Cuddy nodded her head slowly. "Yes. Now please can we just get what we came for and go."

House nodded and letting go of her began rummaging through whatever he could fine. Cuddy just watched him for the first few minutes. She couldn't shake off her feeling of horror at what they were doing. They were basically stealing from dead people. But after a while she accepted that if they wanted to survive then they had to take whatever they could get; she joined House on his hunt.

Nearly two hours later there was a pile of thing they'd managed to salvage from the plane. Once every orifice of the plane had been explored House stopped and limped back over to Cuddy. "I don't think we're going to manage to get that far with this amount of stuff. We aren't going to make it back to where we were before so I suggest we just move far enough from the plane so that it's out of sight and then set up camp."

"Ok" Cuddy's mouth was dry. Possible because she now hadn't had a drink for hours and the temperature on the island had been consistently boiling since they'd got there. Despite the fact it must have been nearly midnight by this point the temperature was still showing no signs of dropping. Sitting down next to the pile of rescued items Cuddy took the lid off a bottle of water and began to drink. Before she knew it the entire bottle was gone and she was reaching for another one. House reached out his hand to stop her.

"Lisa no. I know you're thirsty but that water's all we've got. We need to make sure that we have enough to last until we find another source."

Cuddy looked at him for a moment and then nodded her head. "Yes, of course. Sorry I just…"

"No it's fine." House replied. "Come on the sooner we get this back the sooner we can set up for the night. You look exhausted."

House had found a wheelchair on the plane and loaded that up with as much as it could carry. Trying to lighten the mood he smiled at Cuddy and said "See, how clever am I? I find something that is practical in more than one way. Now I have something to lean on that isn't your shoulder meaning you can carry more, and at the same time I can use it to carry back far more than you'll manage with just your hands."

Cuddy laughed lightly still aware of the bodies littered all around them. "Well done Greg."

They began heading back in the direction they had come from. Once they were far enough away from the plane that it was no longer in sight House decided that it was time they stopped. They were standing about a third of the way down the beach on a patch of sand that was halfway between the sea, and the forest area behind them. "This will do." House stopped moving and Cuddy who had been only about an inch behind him crashed into his back.

"Did you have to stop so suddenly?" Cuddy dropped everything that she had been carrying to the floor. She'd filled up two suitcases with clothes and toiletries, and had dragged them along while carrying three shoulder bags filled with most the water they had and any medicines that she had been able to find.

"Yes" was House's one word response. The wheelchair that he had pushed along the beach had on it the water that Cuddy couldn't manage to carry, any food that had been on the plane including the evening meals for the passengers and snacks that were in their hand luggage, anything else that House spotted that he thought looked interesting, and of course his gameboy that he had rescued from the rubble along with the spare batteries he had bought with him.

Once everything had been unloaded Cuddy opened one of the suitcases and pulled out two towels and a blanket. "I thought we could sit on the towels and have the blanket on standby in case the temperature drops."

House didn't say anything, simply accepted the towel and settled himself down on it. Cuddy did the same and sat herself down next to him.

"So what do we do now?"

House didn't say anything for over a minute. When he did eventually talk all he said were two words. "We wait."

"Wait?" Cuddy was not particularly impressed by the lack of response she was getting. "Wait for what?""To be rescued."

"And if we're not?" Cuddy was becoming quickly frustrated with the fact that House wasn't saying much. "What are we going to do if no one comes for us House? What are we going to do if we're stuck here forever?" She was beginning to panic and as she did so her voice became increasingly loud.

House had been trying not to say much, trying desperately to hide how worried he was. But once Cuddy started to shout he knew that he wasn't going to be able to lie to her and instead gave her the honest answer to her question. "I don't know" he said quietly. "I don't know what we're going to do."


	3. Fix what you can, accept what you can’t

**Title: **Stragglers Moon

**Rating: **K+

**Part: **3/?

**Pairing: **Huddy

**Words:**1,668

**Genre: **Drama / Romance / Angst / Humour… bit of everything really!

**Other: **The amount of reviews make me VERY happy so thanks guys! I am really sorry this has taken so long to reply to but what with exams and everything it took longer than planned. I promise the next part won't take anywhere near as long. Here's part 3 with special thanks to Wonderlandbaby for her constant prodding which made me get this done! Reviews loved as always. xxx

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**Chapter Three - Fix what you can, accept what you can't.**

There was still silence for a moment and then tears began rolling down Cuddy's face. She hated the fact they were there and tried to wipe them away, but as soon as she had removed one lot another had already fallen. "House I don't want to die."

House had never been good at dealing with his own emotions and so he found dealing with anyone else's nearly impossible. What was he supposed to do to make her stop crying? He was half tempted to put his arm around her but House wasn't really one for things like hugs and other forms of physical contact. Instead he replied to her statement with "I won't let you die."

Cuddy wiped her face again and looked up at House. How was he going to save them? They had limited supplies and no way of raising the alarm. Unless he had a panic button hidden somewhere then there was relatively little he could do. "You can't promise that."

House was about to think of something reassuring to reply with but was distracted when he saw blood dripping through her t-shirt. "Lisa are you ok?"

Cuddy looked down at her stomach and noticed there was blood seeping through onto her top. Wondering about the renewed use of her first name Cuddy nodded and replied to his question. "I'm fine I just have a few scrapes and cuts. I tried patching them up earlier but…" Cuddy trailed off.

House moved around so he was facing her. "That much blood is not just a scrape, if it's still bleeding now then you're going to need stitches."

Cuddy groaned "Are you sure?"

House nodded. "Right come on, you can't do it yourself so I'll do it. I have a first aid kit here somewhere. Find it and then get that t-shirt off."

Cuddy looked around before finding a small box on the wheelchair. "Here" she handed it over to him "and I do not need to take my top off, I'll just roll it up."

"You don't need to take it off but as you are getting free health care your doctor would really appreciate it, and it would be considered as payment for his excellent sutchering abilities."

Cuddy couldn't help but laugh a little. "I've got some money left in my pocket from the trip, if you want payment then you can have that."

"You're no fun." House said pretending to sulk. He moved across to where Cuddy was sitting. "Right lay on your back." Even as the words came out House couldn't stop himself smiling a bit. It was the kind of thing that he had previously only imagined saying to her while he fantasised in the shower. It seemed strange that now he was actually saying it he was doing so for completely different reasons to the one he had imagined.

Cuddy rolled her eyes knowing exactly what House was thinking about as he said it, but carefully dropped backwards so she was laying flat. House's hands were very quickly on the edge of her t-shirt, pushing it upwards so that her stomach was exposed. How he hadn't noticed before he didn't know, she must have been in a lot of pain. Cuddy had attempted to stop the bleeding by sticking a thin layer of padding over it, but that was now blood soaked and falling off. House removed it as gently as possible not wanting to hurt her. He grabbed an antiseptic wipe out of the first aid kit but before starting he looked at her and said very clearly "if at any point this is hurting too much then tell me to stop and I will."

Cuddy nodded a little surprised about how sweet House was being. But then this was probably just him trying not to make her cry again so he didn't have to deal with it. She felt House wiping her cut and tried not to led her eyes water. It didn't so much hurt as sting.

"You ok?" House could see Cuddy flinching and wondered if he was pressing down too hard. He didn't want to hurt her but at the same time he wanted it to be cleaned properly so there was less chance of infection. Once she nodded he continued. After he was certain there were no germs left in it, he reached over for the sewing kit and got out a needle and some thread. He was going to ask her what colour she wanted but doubted she would care and decided that it would be better just to get on with it. He found a bottle of vodka (he had rescued it from the kitchen area of the plane) and dipped the needle in it so it was fully sterilised. "This is going to hurt a bit" he warned her and then began, as gently as possible, sewing up the cut.

Cuddy wanted desperately to yell at him to stop but knew that this had to be done. Although it was still agonising he was clearly trying his best not to hurt her so there was nothing else she could do. It didn't take long and Cuddy was grateful for his speed. "Thanks" she mumbled once he had finished.

"No problem." An awkward silence fell between them. After a minute or two House realised that Cuddy's t-shirt was still rolled up over her stomach and decided to try and lighten the atmosphere… well that or start a fight with her; which at that point was pretty much the same thing. Before she had a chance to stop him he quickly pulled her top the whole way up so he could get a quick look at the twins. Wow she was wearing a black lace bra with dark red at the top on the right. No hang on that wasn't meant to be there. "Are you bleeding?" House asked trying to get a better look and being glared at.

Cuddy had known that there was a small cut on the top of her right breast but hadn't wanted House seeing it so had kept quiet. Now, annoyed at the fact he had pulled her t-shirt up but well aware that it would be a waste of time to say anything, Cuddy nodded slowly.

House looked her in the eyes. "Lisa please can I check if it needs a couple of stitches. It looks like it's still bleeding. You can keep the bra on I'll just move it down slightly at the top."

"And after last time how can I trust you not to do something stupid?"

House felt a small pang of guilt. "Lisa right now it's just you and me on this island and neither of us have any idea how long we're going to be here. You're going to have to trust me."

Cuddy looked at him for a moment trying to work out if this was genuine or not. For once it appeared that it was. She nodded her head again and allowed him to move closer.

House carefully moved the top of her bra down. It was ridiculously hard not to be turned on by this but remembered that he'd told her to trust him he made a promise to himself to control the urge to pull the whole bra off. Using his right hand he ran it across the cut and shook his head. "This one won't need stitches."

"You sure?" Cuddy asked.

"Very" House replied "it will heal naturally." He moved the bra back up so it covered all of her and then pulled her t-shirt back down. He saw her flinch as the material of the t-shirt rubbed against the cuts. "You could just keep it off so it doesn't rub every time you move? I've seen it all now and I promise to behave."

Cuddy laughed and shook her head. "Greg you can't help yourself."

House smiled and watched her sit up. "That mean it's staying on then?""Yes!" she replied quickly. It was now nearly morning and for the first time since they'd arrived Cuddy was overcome by tiredness. She yawned and felt her eyes begin to close.

House smiled at her. "I think it's time we both get some sleep. It's freezing cold now as well. Good job we grabbed a blanket." He got himself into a standing position and set to work organising a sleeping place for them. He laid out all the towels onto the sand and then grabbed the large blanket they had rescued. Once he had finished he looked back at her. "Finished."

"You want me to sleep next to you?" Cuddy asked a little amused.

"Well we're both going to freeze if not. This blanket is good but on its own it won't be warm enough; we need each others body heat. And anyway there's only one blanket."

Cuddy sighed. She hated to admit it but he was right, they had no choice. Reluctantly Cuddy kicked her shoes and socks off and moved over to where he had set everything up. She curled up under the blanket "and no funny business or tomorrow night I get the blanket and you can freeze to death."

"You don't mean that" House said before snuggling up next to her. He was laying behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist careful not to touch the part of her that was already tender. Slowly she relaxed into him and it was less than ten minutes later that they were both fast asleep, protected by each other.


End file.
